Tony Stark is a boss. He's so great, that even his biggest mistakes are actually kinda awesome.
So why is his showdown against the fake Mandarin one of his most
underrated moments? Keep watching to find out!
During the final battle between Tony Stark, the Iron Man,
and Obadiah Stane, the Iron Monger, Stane's suit is larger and seemingly more powerful.
But when the combatants take to the skies, it becomes clear that
Stark has thought of something that Obadiah didn't: the "icing problem."
Earlier in 2008's "Iron Man," Stark tests out the flight systems of the Mark 2 suit
for the first time and discovers that flying too high causes the armor to freeze over and shut
down. He promptly fixes this for the Mark 3 and uses that to his advantage against Iron Monger,
but this moment is indicative of one of the best through-lines in the entire MCU.
The Iron Man armor doesn't just change over time: Tony Stark adapts it from movie to
movie based on the specific events of the previous film. In "Iron Man 2," his suit
struggles against Vanko's electrical whips, but by the time of "Avengers," his armor can
absorb excess electricity like it does when hit by Thor's lightning. In "Infinity War," Stark's
incredible nanotech armor is destroyed by Thanos because, in part, the collapse of the suit's
physical shields uses up the armor's limited store of nanoparticles. By "Endgame," however,
Tony has implemented hard-light-style energy shields to keep that from happening again.
Seeing Tony's armor adapt to the specific challenges within each film's narrative
created an incredibly satisfying technological evolutionary process, and that all started here.
At the end of 2008's "Iron Man," Tony tells the world that he's the pilot and inventor
of the revolutionary new "Iron Man" armor, and by the time its sequel rolls around in 2010,
financial and political powers the world over want that tech for themselves. To that end,
United States Senator Stern of Pennsylvania leads hearings in
which the man tries to force Stark to hand over the armor to the federal government.
"You want my property? You can't have it! But I did you a big favor!
I successfully privatized world peace!"
"F— you, Mr. Stark. F— you, buddy!"
By the end, however, after Iron Man and War Machine defeat Whiplash and save the day,
the US decides to award the pair medals for their service. Tony asks SHIELD Director Nick Fury to
force Senator Stern to eat his words, present the awards himself and personally congratulate
each of them. It's a great scene that's made even richer after watching "Captain America:
The Winter Soldier" and realizing that Stern was a corrupt member of Hydra all along.
"Hail Hydra!"
2012's "The Avengers" has one of the most fondly remembered after-credits scenes of
the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. After delivering a nuclear missile through a portal
and being caught and revived by the Hulk, Tony asks the team if they want to get some grub.
"You ever tried shawarma?
There's a shawarma joint two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it."
After the credits roll, audiences are treated to the Avengers eating at that very restaurant.
Not only is it an unexpected payoff to a seemingly throwaway line, but it's a great scene.
What many fans may not realize, however, is that the post-credits scene was set up earlier.
After flying inside of a Chitauri leviathan Jonah-style and blowing it up from the inside,
he crashes to the ground right next to the shawarma joint before rejoining the fight.
It's an incredibly easy-to-miss detail and one of the best Easter eggs in the film.
It may not have been what fans expected, but when "Iron Man 3" depicted Tony
Stark struggling with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder,
Iron Man became one of the most grounded and human characters in the entire MCU.
After nearly dying multiple times in a battle for the fate of the entire planet,
Tony doesn't just walk away. By having Tony deal with these very human mental health
consequences of the trauma he experienced, Iron Man simultaneously became both a better
character and a representative of everybody in the real world confronting these issues.
As clinical psychologist and Marvel fan Dr. Andrea Letamendi wrote,
"Tony's struggle with anxiety is poignant because it allows us to realize that he is,
in fact, still human. To this end, it doesn't matter to me if his panic
attacks are indicative of clinical PTSD, complex PTSD, subclinical anxiety disorder,
or another psychiatric category we can use as a label. The point is this:
A brilliant, powerful, and tough guy can be vulnerable, scared, and confused."
"Iron Man 3" devotes most of its run time to showing that it's Tony Stark's character,
not his armor, that makes him a hero. He's Iron Man
regardless of what tools or weapons he has at his disposal,
and one extended action sequence in particular demonstrates that idea in action beautifully.
Cut off from his friends and normal equipment, Stark visits a generic retail store and creates
new weapons out of the everyday items he can find there. Armed with only this, his training,
and his wits, he successfully breaches the defenses of the mansion allegedly
belonging to the Mandarin, taking out its guards with his jury-rigged gear.
Just like when he finds himself imprisoned by the Ten Rings in the original "Iron Man,"
Tony Stark becomes Iron Man by creating the best tools he has out of the technology around him.
Though these results may not be as flashy as his classic armor, they are just as meaningful.
When Tony Stark has JARVIS enact the "Clean Slate Protocol" and destroy
his entire armory of suits at the end of "Iron Man 3," many viewers
were not happy. It's a controversial moment in an equally divisive film,
but it manages to perfectly capture the movie's themes in a way that is often overlooked.
The majority of the film revolves around showing, not telling, that Tony Stark
is Iron Man, not his armor, and this is the scene that drives that home. Tony was coping
with the trauma he experienced in New York, in part, by overly-relying on his suits of armor.
Those armors represented that unhealthy and destructive obsession, and obliterating them
was a determined symbol of his recommitment to being present in both his own and Pepper's lives.
By the time 2016's "Captain America: Civil War" split the Avengers apart, Tony Stark and
Pepper Potts were taking a break. When Steve asks about the couple during the film, Tony explains,
"A few years ago I almost lost her, so I trashed all my suits. Then, we had to mop up Hydra,
and then Ultron. My fault. And then, and then, and then, I never stopped."
The line is an incredible piece of dialogue that easily and concisely tracks Tony's personal
journey from "Iron Man 3" to "Civil War," and there are a lot of interesting details that
can be inferred from this. For example, if this timeline is taken literally, Tony didn't make
another Iron Man suit until after the events of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."
This would explain where he was during the events of the film and could mean that the Helicarriers
crashing into Washington, DC's Potomac River are what spurred him to put the armor back on.
Additionally, "Civil War" shows that putting the armor on again in "Avengers: Age of Ultron"
impacted his relationship with Pepper by damaging the gesture he made with the Clean Slate Protocol.
Tony's talk with Steve is an excellent recap of how Tony got to where he is in this movie, and
it's the perfect set-up for the exploration of his motivations that follow immediately afterwards.
Fans around the world were thrilled when Sony and Disney reached a deal that
finally allowed Spider-Man to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the wallcrawler's films
have been wildly successful. That being said, there is one aspect of the adaptation that has
proven mildly divisive: Peter's almost "sidekick" relationship to Tony Stark.
Critics bemoan the idea that a character who may just be the most popular and successful superhero
in history was made into "Iron Man Jr." The end of "Spider-Man: Homecoming," however,
is one moment that avoids that idea while still utilizing their mentor relationship in
a way that doesn't diminish either character but instead builds them both up as their own heroes.
Having finally beaten the Vulture, Tony is ready to introduce Spider-Man to the
world as the newest member of the Avengers — but Peter says, "No."
"I'd rather just stay on the ground for a little while. Friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man.
Somebody's got to look out for the little guy, right?"
Tony is impressed by Peter's maturity. But he also assumed Peter would say yes,
so he had already announced, organized, and started the press conference,
and now the reason for it just left to go back to Queens. It's a great moment
that highlights Peter's development while also generating some great humor at Tony's expense.
"What am I going to tell them?"
"Think of something. How about… Hap, you still have the ring? The engagement ring?"
"Are you kidding me? I've been carrying this since 2008!"
After stowing away aboard a ship and sucking Ebony Maw out into the vacuum of space,
Tony Stark and Dr. Strange debate what to do next. During their argument, Tony tells Strange
"Thanos has been inside my head for six years,
since he sent an army to New York. And now he's back!"
That one sentence illustrates a key throughline of Tony's journey since the original "Avengers" film.
After seeing what was out there during the Battle for New York,
Tony became haunted by what else could be out there.
It was that fear that drove him to dream of the "suit of armor around the world"
that unintentionally resulted in the creation of Ultron and Vision in "Avengers: Age of Ultron."
It was this dread that led to his decision in "Captain America: Civil War" to choose the
security of keeping the Avengers together over the freedom of being able to act as they chose.
After New York, Tony knew three things: The aliens had come from somewhere,
somebody had sent them, and both were still out there, fully capable of returning. This knowledge
influenced Tony's actions in every single film, and that's encapsulated perfectly by this moment.
When they first met in 2012's "The Avengers," Tony and Steve didn't like each other one bit, but
after fighting for humanity together side-by-side, they developed a strong friendship that was
ultimately shattered by the events of "Captain America: Civil War." Unwilling to compromise and
unable to talk things out, the two nearly killed one another before going their separate ways.
After Thanos' victory at the end of "Infinity War," that rift seemed wider than ever as Tony
seemed to blame Steve for their loss. However, once an opportunity to restore
everything they'd lost finally appeared, the two put their differences aside and worked together
to gather the Infinity Stones from across time and undo the snap that killed half the universe.
That entire personal journey comes to a head in a singular moment from "Avengers: Endgame." Unable
to retrieve the Tesseract and lacking the Pym particles to try again and still make it home,
the pair's quest seems over until Tony realizes they can find both in the 1970s during the
early days of SHIELD at Camp Lehigh. If Stark's wrong, everybody loses, and they'll become lost
in time. With literally half the universe riding on this one chance, Tony looks at Steve and asks,
"You trust me?"
"I do."
With that, the pair's friendship is finally, fully restored. The rift that was created
during "Civil War" is mended, and they are finally facing the end of the world united.
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